About 85 million adults and children ride their bikes every year. For children and teens, the bicycle is a primary means of transportation when traveling independently. Each morning, an estimated half million people bicycle to work in the United States. However, injuries occur. Each year, more than 500,000 bicyclists sustain a cycling injury that requires emergency department care. Many of these injuries are cause by traffic accidents. About 94% of all cycling fatalities are the result of traffic crashes. Not surprisingly, more than half of the bicyclists riding in or near traffic report feeling unsafe.
In order to combat this, cycling advocacy groups teach riding techniques designed to minimize the chance of accidents with motorists. These include wearing brightly colored clothing, riding in the appropriate lane in a predictable manner, and using lights at night. The majority of these precautions, and indeed most safety products currently sold in the industry, are designed to increase the probability that motorists will see cyclists.
Despite such precautions and safety products, many traffic accidents still occur. In a large number of cases the accident is caused because the motorist did not see the cyclist. Even a cyclist wearing bright clothing on a sunny day can go unseen by motorists. The causes range from visual obstructions to cockpit distractions. Bright glare on a windshield, a car parked in the bike lane, and a blind curve are just a few examples of physical situations that limit a motorist's ability to see even the most brightly attired cyclists. The problem is especially acute for bus and truck drivers because the large size of their vehicles creates many “blind spots.” Driver distractions such as mobile phones, heavy traffic conditions, and day dreaming can also cause motorists to overlook cyclists. In addition to accidents caused by motorists, a number of accidents can be attributed to cyclists, particularly children and teens, who do not obey traffic rules and do not practice safe cycling techniques. In many of these cases, the cyclists put themselves into positions where they cannot be seen by motorists in time to avoid accidents.
The fact that so many bicycle traffic accidents still occur suggests that relying on motorists' vision to avoid traffic accidents is not sufficient. To date, motorists have not had access to devices that would compliment their visual senses and help avoid accidents. Likewise, cyclists have not had access to devices that help them become more identifiable to motor vehicle traffic when visual obstructions and distractions are present. While cyclists suffer acutely from the above problems, other people including joggers, motorcyclists, roller skaters, and pedestrians are affected by the above described problems and suffer from the same lack of solutions. As such, people who use the roadways need a new type of collision avoidance system that will allow motorists to detect the presence of cyclists and other low visibility road hazards even when visual obstructions and distractions are present.